This is one of the best demonstrations of Bagua's evasive footwork I've ever come across. It's rare to find a Bagua practitioner who's able to move and strike this well with speed and power -- as opposed to the silly merry-go-around type of Bagua paired drills we normally see.

The "swaying" movement he shows is very similar to what my Bagua teacher used to teach and emphasize. When done right, it really leaves the opponent feeling as if they are fighting a ghost that appears and disappears out of nowhere.

“My family is from Pingding Shan in Henan province, but later moved to Zhengzhou (the provincial capital). I was really weak when I was little, so I started to learn external martial arts like Shaolin boxing. When I was around 10 or so, I used to love practicing iron arm, I would knock my arms against trees whenever I could. ” Upon inspection by our reporter, Guo’s forearm was indeed extremely hard.

” When I was 15 I met my teacher Shi Chongying and, thinking that my iron arm was already pretty awesome, I asked him to hit my arm. To my surprise, a light touch from him was enough to numb my arm for an entire afternoon. After that experience, I was determined to study neijiaquan (meaning xingyi, bagua and taiji) with Shi.

“I can’t mention my teacher without talking about my shiye (grand-teacher) Wang Jiaofu. Wang was from Shandong and had originally studied praying mantis before he met Hu Laiyi. He studied from Hu for 34 years, right up until his passing. Wang was a strict, strange man, who in teaching his students would never say something more than 3 times. Even so, he produced a fair number of excellent martial artists.”

“My teacher took his training really seriously, a lot of other people thought he was a weirdo. For example, one time he was taking the train with his colleagues, instead of playing cards with the others he locked himself in the toilet to practice his gongfu! Also, my teacher is a bit of a hermit, he very rarely makes public appearances or enters martial arts tournaments, so the only people who know about him are other martial arts masters.”

The Search for High-Level Masters

After he graduated from college, Guo worked as a biology teacher at a middle school. Almost no-one knew that he was a martial arts expert, nor did he mention it to anyone. It was in this period of his life that he used his holidays to look for other high-level martial artists all over China. In his search, he visited Sichuan, Yunnan, Hebei, Shenzhen amongst others.

The real masters are not the ones producing the DVDs, they’re hidden amongst ordinary people.

In a farming village, that old man using a walking stick to walk could very well be a martial arts master who could kill a man with one blow.In my search, I met 5 or 6 real high-level masters, but the problem is they were all getting on in years by the time I met them. On one occasion when I was in Shenzhen’s Lychee Park (Lizhi Gongyuan) I met a 76-year old gentleman surnamed Fei who had practiced taiji for over 50 years.

That day, he was pushing hands with some other people in the park, when someone urged me to have a push with him. The moment he made contact with me, he said “You’ve been practicing for at least 20 years”. This kind of ability (to discern how long someone has been practicing) is something that only comes with mastery.”

“That said, however, I still think that the highest-level master I’ve ever met is my own teacher. Fighting him is like fighting a shadow, I can never land a blow on him, yet his every move is targeting a vital point.”

Last edited by windwalker on Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The real masters are not the ones producing the DVDs, they’re hidden amongst ordinary people.

Does this also count for "Masters letting them being filmed and having it put up on the web"? For sure there are people out there that have deep knowledge but whish to keep a low profile, one of my teachers is very much like that but the others have clips on the tubes and they have some pretty good skill too....just find it a little confusing when as above statement are highlighted but yet videos are posted

1. The attacker is doing the classic 'punch, leave your hand out and don't move' attack. That's ok, it enables the guy to demonstrate his moves. But he's not a live attacker.

2. His characterisation of xingyi is a bit simplistic. My experience is that timing, footwork and evasion, as you step in, was really key to making xy work. It might look like you just charge blindly in trying to overwhelm with power, as he's suggesting, but really it's done with subtle evasion - smaller that's what he's showing with his big side to side steps, but they work too.

The real masters are not the ones producing the DVDs, they’re hidden amongst ordinary people.

Does this also count for "Masters letting them being filmed and having it put up on the web"? For sure there are people out there that have deep knowledge but whish to keep a low profile, one of my teachers is very much like that but the others have clips on the tubes and they have some pretty good skill too....just find it a little confusing when as above statement are highlighted but yet videos are posted

I take it as he's being very humble and acknowledging that not everyone famous is a master in in his eyes, and that he's met some unknown people who's skills he felt were quite high. I would venture to say that he does not even consider himself up to the level of those unknwn he's met.

I happen to agree with his point...

I think it depends on whether one is pushing the art or themselves.

As to who and who is not at master level, kinda depends on ones own level and viewpoint.

There is a saying "hidden in plain sight" The same old person that someone sees practicing in a park someplace later turns out to be a master level practitioner.

For this teacher I happen to like his work, and have noted it for some time.

GrahamB wrote:I think what he's showing is fine, but I had two observations:

1. The attacker is doing the classic 'punch, leave your hand out and don't move' attack. That's ok, it enables the guy to demonstrate his moves. But he's not a live attacker.

2. His characterisation of xingyi is a bit simplistic. My experience is that timing, footwork and evasion, as you step in, was really key to making xy work. It might look like you just charge blindly in trying to overwhelm with power, as he's suggesting, but really it's done with subtle evasion - smaller that's what he's showing with his big side to side steps, but they work too.

and yet hes produced a sanda team with people who win the events that's also part of his experience.

wayne hansen wrote:I agree Grahame I quite like this guy but think ba kua should show the same subtlety as hsing I ,if not moreBy the time he runs around the guy he would have realigned and be facing him

My Xingyi teacher would never let us train "applications" - everything was always done as part of a live 2 man exercise where you were giving and receiving strikes. You'd just slot the new technique you were working on into the pattern. He never let us practice it in isolation against an unmoving person. It still wasn't "real" but it was closer to the real to do it that way while you were learning.

I liked it. He expresses himself very well. He is absolutely correct about not letting someone target you and always move away from the opponents targeting. Many people, tjq practitioners especially, try to attack or evade straight on letting opponent plan his game. I can understand that this teacher’s students have had success in Sanda competitions.

Thoughts on Tai Chi (My Tai Chi blog)- Storms make oaks take deeper root. -George Herbert- To affect the quality of the day, is the highest of all arts! -Walden Thoreau

As it's often the case whenever an application video is posted here on RSF, some have pointed out the obvious fact that this particular demo was done on a "dummy" student.

However, I'd say that in my experience, 9 out of 10 times you can pretty much determine a practitioner's level of skill simply by observing the way they move in controlled training environments -- the same way you can tell how good a boxer is just by looking at their shadowboxing and heavy-bag work.

This teacher has my seal of approval, and I really don't need to see him whup someone's ass for real to prove it.

Last edited by C.J.W. on Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.

A main reason I like this fellow is that he has proven his worth in sanda/sanshou competition (and his students do well to match ) as opposed to the perfectly executed footwork of non contact players (tournament circuit) who score well but actual utility always will remain in question. Please remember that the tournament circuit is wonderful for those who excel at this gymnastic display of flexibility and award winning postures It's all good.

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